Municipalities Reach Settlement in Overcharging Suit

August 24, 2004
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As part of a class action settlement involving hundreds of
communities in the state of New Jersey, 22 Gloucester County
towns must issue refunds to individuals they overcharged for
municipal court documents known as "discovery" materials since
2000, the Gloucester County Times reports.

The settlement, which will be reviewed in Superior Court next
month, will also require each municipality to pay $1,700 in
addition to any refund costs to anyone who paid a flat fee for
discovery materials in a participating town since Jan 19, 2000,
could be eligible for a refund. The settlement also calls for
the municipalities involved to amend their fee structures for
court discovery materials to comply with the state's Open Public Records Act.

The tentative settlement stems from a suit filed against the
Deptford Township that claimed it violated the state's Open
Public Records Act by charging a Willingboro resident $20 for a
four-page court document. The court consolidated the Deptford
complaint with similar suits against six other municipalities.

The class action suit, filed by Willingboro resident Nicholas
Fernandez, took issue with flat fees that many municipalities
had been charging for the "discovery" materials.

According to Sander D. Friedman, a Marlton attorney who served
as lead co-counsel with Donald M. Doherty Jr. for the plaintiff,
an order directing the state to set up a per-page fee schedule
was already being passed by the state, but many municipalities
continued to charge a flat fee as high as $20 for a packet of
discovery documents. In 2003, the state passed a new open
records law that limited charges for copies of public documents
to 75 cents for the first 10 pages, 50 cents for the next 10
pages, and 25 cents for each page after that.

West Deptford Township and National Park, West Deptford Township and National Park were not included in the settlement, since it only included towns that are insured by the Municipal Excess
Liability Joint Insurance Fund. Out of nearly 360 municipalities
insured by the fund in the state, six opted out of the
settlement.

Defendants lead-counsel, William John Kearns Jr., told the
Gloucester County Times that it would be difficult to estimate
how much the settlement would cost each municipality since the
number of people who were overcharged during the three-year
period or how many would apply for refunds has not been
determined.

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